#Review: The Daughter of the Fens by Elena Collins @JudyLeighWriter @BoldwoodBooks @rararesources #blogtour #publicationday #timeslip #histfic #BoldwoodBloggers #TheDaughterOf TheFens

I’m always delighted to help launch a blog tour for a new book from Elena Collins (or, it has to be said, for Judy Leigh too!), and today it’s such a pleasure to share my publication day review for her latest, The Daughter of the Fens. Published today (2nd October) by Boldwood Books, it’s now available for kindle (free via Kindle Unlimited), in paperback, and as an audiobook. As always, thank you to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support, and to the publishers for my advance reading e-copy (provided via netgalley).

You’ll know how much I love Judy Leigh’s writing – enter her name in my search bar you’ll find all my many reviews – but I’m equally enjoying the books she writes as Elena Collins. The first, The Witch’s Tree, rather blew me away – seventeenth century Somerset, those wonderful spine-tingling supernatural touches in the present day story, the strong emotional content – and it entirely deserved its place in my 2022 Books of the Year (you can read my review again here). And then came The Lady of the Loch, its historical story set in the Scottish Highlands during the period leading up to the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, as the English sought to overthrow King Robert de Brus – a balancing contemporary story, seven hundred years of heartbreak and betrayal, and I loved every moment (you’ll find my review here). Roman Britain this time? Bring it on…

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Brittania is in the hands of the Romans but when the conquering army betray the dead King Prasutagus by defiling his daughters, his Queen, Boudicca, is determined to regain her land.

 

Iceni slave Brea remembers little of the time before the Romans, and has grown used to their louche and indulgent customs. She diligently goes about her duties looking after the artless Aurelia, wife-to-be of the handsome war hero Marcellus, but her longing for freedom and her desire to find her lost father, are never far from her mind.

 

Present Day

 

When Hanna returns to Norfolk from years working abroad, the strange dreams of her adolescence return: indistinct figures in tunics, mighty soldiers in armour, gladiators, temples, an Iceni warrior woman leading her people. Gradually Hanna’s dreams begin to slip into the present as visions in the famous mists rolling across the fens, and as shocks of recognition when a new face moves to her childhood home.

 

As Hanna realises that she has a connection with a tragedy that occurred many years before, so Brea has to understand that her fate is bound up with her Roman master. And as the drumbeat of rebellion gets ever closer Brea must make the fatal choice between love and loyalty while Hanna has to find a way to make peace with the past.

While I’ve recently rediscovered my love of historical fiction, and unfailingly enjoy any book where there’s a thin veil between past and present, I’ll admit I was less than comfortable about slipping back two centuries to the time of the Roman occupation of Britain. But that feeling was dispelled within the first few pages – an intriguing introduction to a younger Hanna with the accident that began her visions of the past, the violence that saw Brea torn from her Fenland Iceni tribe into a life of slavery, and I was more than happy to embrace whatever followed.

Plagued by unsettling dreams of another time that she doesn’t fully understand, Hanna is back from abroad at her childhood home in Norfolk, beginning to realise that her life is inextricably entangled with that of the girl whose experiences she regularly revisits. When shadows from the past begin to appear in daylight hours too, she knows that she won’t be able to move on until she uncovers the full story – helped by the discovery of some remnants from the past that, with support from others with knowledge of the period and an understanding of the links between past and present, begin her process of healing and allowing the restless spirits of the past to rest.

In the Fenlands of the past, we follow the life of Brea, dreaming of being able to rejoin her Iceni tribe, but living as a slave in a Roman household. Tasked to support Marcellus’ new wife, a love story unfolds – an attraction to the master who shows her rare kindness, with a forbidden love that resonates across the years. While the romance is quite beautifully handled, so is the recreation of the time in which they lived – with a wealth of detail, we equally experience the life of duty of Roman women of that time, forced and confined into marriages arranged by their families, torn from their homes in a similar way to Brea herself. The history entirely comes to life – the very real individuals and their experiences, the backdrop absolutely and convincingly real.

The characterisation is just superb – we share Brea’s thoughts, live her experiences, feel her longing for freedom, and certainly share her inner conflict as her emotions become increasingly turbulent and her life fraught with danger. And, in Roman times, the supporting cast fascinates too – Marcellus himself a true hero in so many ways, his sister with her self-obsession and edge of cruelty, his new wife Aurelia struggling following her arrival. But I very much enjoyed the present day characters too – there’s a lovely focus on family with Hanna’s mother and father-to-be and his son who Hanna hopes will be a friend, the team who assist her in making sense of her links with the past, and an intriguing touch of romance that begins with a frisson of attraction that’s easy to recognise.

It’s a tremendous story, and perfectly told – one of those where you slip between the pages and happily live in the world of the author’s imagination. Those ties between past and present, the unsettling moments, the glimpses through the curtain – the atmospheric and beautifully drawn landscape, and that overwhelming love that touched me so deeply with moments that moved me to tears. My goodness, it was wonderful – I loved every moment, was captivated throughout, and couldn’t recommend it more highly.

About the author

Elena Collins is the pseudonym for USA Today bestselling author Judy Leigh writing unforgettable, heart-breaking timeslip novels. She has lived all over the UK from Liverpool to Cornwall, but currently resides in Somerset.

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